Past tense - was [adjective]
Structure
- い-Adjective[
い] + かった
- い-Adjective → short past form → polite past form
- おおき
い+ かった → おおきかった → おおきかったです- おいし
い+ かった → おいしかった → おいしかったです- はや
い+ かった → はやかった → はやかったです
If using “です” after “かった” is not “academically correct Japanese”, what is?
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Using “かった” without “です”, that is, ending the sentence with “～かった。” is considered “academically correct Japanese”.
(Sorry for necroing this apparently unanswered question.)
I think the question was, what is then considered correct polite past form from Bunpro’s point of view. Surely a simple かった without です would be considered non-polite, so it cannot be that.
Bunpro article on one hand instructs to use です, on the other hand seems to warn against using it, but then doesn’t give any alternative… Is this caution block even needed, especially at N5 level?
It is just fine to use です after the past tense of an い adjective. (I double-checked with several of the Japanese teachers of English in my school just to be sure).
With friends? (Casual) ～かった
With someone you need/want to be polite to? (Polite)～かったです
Both 美味しかった and 美味しかったです are perfectly correct (examples) and are used with near equal frequency.
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I’m going to jump in and explain what the line in the write up is talking about and why it is there. This explanation is beyond N5 grammar, so for anyone reading who is currently learning this point you don’t need to worry about the details!
The use of “い-adjectives” (形容詞) with です is something that has slowly become accepted in the language, as it allows people to speak politely but not pretentiously. Historically, to make the polite form of an い-adjective you actually had to conjugate it and add ございます. I will use non-past examples to keep things simpler, but what is said below applies to the past tense as well:
おいしい (It is tasty)
おいしゅうございます (It is tasty (polite))
Note that this is the source of the below common phrases:
早い → おはようございます (It is early (polite, respectful))
ありがたい → ありがとうございます (It is something to be grateful for (polite))
However, this is a bit long and pretentious/stiff sounding. Grammatically, we can see that directly attaching だ to an い-adjective is wrong. In much the same way, adding です also used to be “wrong”. It has only become normalised out of convenience, to not sound so stiff but still be polite.
おいしいだ (It is tasty is)
NG
おいしいです (It is tasty (polite))OK in modern Japanese
For some people, using です after an い-adjective can still feel odd, including/especially in the past tense. In the context of polite but casual conversation it is now perfectly normal, but in some contexts (including writing) it can sound “spoken” or even a little childish to some people.
Because of this, in a polite and formal setting (business, etc) you are likely to find people naturally avoiding this sort of construction. For example, we can add と思います to keep the sentence polite but avoid attaching です to an い-adjective.
ありがたいと思います (I’m grateful - I think it is something to be grateful for)
In formal but not polite contexts (academic writing, some types of speeches, etc), using です・ます is unnecessary so we can totally avoid this and just end the sentence with an い-adjective. Note that this isn’t “casual”, it is just not “polite”. Consider how a newspaper is written.
それでも中国製は３割ほど安い。(Nevertheless, the Chinese made ones are about 30% cheaper)
The writeup currently says:
Although this is considered to be polite by most people, using です after かった is not academically correct Japanese. However, considering how common its usage has become, it may be used in almost any situation confidently.
This is just to warn that in some contexts, for some speakers, this usage is considered to be slightly off or even wrong. Someone at N5 is unlikely to come across this, but it is worth being aware of.
You can find some natives wondering about this exact thing here (likely region blocked for some people).
Hopefully that clears up the questions in this thread!
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